One of these years I will make it there!!!!

Hey Michael!

The other Mike and I are shooting for a 9:15 arrival at the Olympia. I don't know if you were getting the other messages I sent back to you...

See you there!

I have some gray but not much. Mainly because the hair in general is not as thick (or long) as it used to be... I'm not sure what I'll be wearing. As long as it's clean I'm doing well.

Another great show this year! Mike, Michael and I got together about an hour late (my fault) for breakfast. Then we headed over.

Lots of goodies- I was totally smitten with a stop sign badge bop kit in green sparkle... man was that sexy. Found a couple super sensitives that I wanted too. But running late due to daddy duty... and that's ok. So I didn't load up the D-20 or the DW snare (plus my big box-o-hardware) to make room and offset the new purchases... there's always next year.

It was great catching up with Joe Montineri and Justin Ottaviano. I haven't seen either in two years.

The clinics were great. Really fun and informative. I picked up the (7hour long?) DVD on brush technique from Adam Nussbaum- what a great guy (and player). Joe Corsello was awesome too. The surprise for me was Mark Schulman. What a guy! I had to get a copy of his book. We swapped baby pictures briefly and he was gracious enough to sign my book for me. I saw Bernard but did not chat with him. He's looking great however. Sporting a nice Sakae kit...

Well those were the highlights for this year. Here's a few poor photos:

And a couple more:

It was great to meet J!m and Mike in person, also met up with a few other members from our forum like Matt from CT Percussion (what a wealth of knowledge on antique and vintage marchers) as well as Chad from Lasalle Music in E Hartford CT. Chad's dad runs the consignment area at the show. Need to give a shout out to Chad as he got me backstage to meet Bobby T and the Johnny Winter All Star Band before their show.

Not as many vendors as in the past but still saw lots of great deals and I was able to pick up a bunch of parts I needed for restorations (took a lot of effort not to pick up some great snares for the collection) and got lots of drum heads signed to hang in the Drum Cave.

The clinics were very good, Adam and Joe were such a wealth of knowledge and man they oozed Jazz ! Mark Schulman was exactly what you would expect very charismatic and a true showman with some great chops. I hung till the end to hear Bobby T and the Johnny Winter All Star band. William Ludwig III gave Bobby T a beautiful custom painted snare to match his kit. Bobby played a great 4+ minute solo. A very entertaining band.

I am looking forward to next years show and if I can swing it, maybe a trip to Chicago this year, but I need to pick up a few more "honey-do points" first !

Here are some pics. Sorry but I can upload any short video's as the thread is closed.

Michael

Nice, sorry i missed it.

Michael!

Post up the vids if you have 'em ... the thread is NOT closed!

Tommyp

I meant to go back and check on some hardware for my Gretsch snare... but I had to cut out and get home. I'm glad I made it (at all!) and as usual, it was great seeing and meeting everyone again or the first time.

Anyway, I wish it was a two-day event, but not quite big enough yet. The fact that we expanded into two buildings shows we're growing!

I'll be there next year, and I'll get my stuff packed ahead of time so I can sell, and buy!

J!m, Mike:

Thanks for the debriefing and all the pics. Looks like it was another great show. Hope to make it next year. Nice to hear that our resident rope-tension drum expert Matt Alling (CT Pro Percussion) had a booth set up. He hasn't posted or checked in here on the VDF since he suffered that big robbery a while back.

Sounds like the clinics were great. Anybody got pics of any unusual or special sets (or snares) on display? I always like to see what I missed out on.

Mike

For me, the coolest thing was that green kit... but I wanted IT, not a picture!

There was some cool older stuff but not my cup of tea.